Date Released: Feb 21, 2012

Bitrate: Variable

Contributor

Stacey Anderson's past employment highlights include selling watches to Coldplay, chasing spiders from the dressing rooms at Carnegie Hall, and serving as the S...more »

02.21.12

Damien Jurado, Maraqopa

2012 | Label: Secretly Canadian / SC Distribution

On Damien Jurado’s 10th album, the tried and true folk bard is quick to turn on himself — not a comfortable task for a solo performer who stares into seas of people nightly. “Many nights you would hide from the audience/ When they were not in tune with your progress,” he sings on “Working Titles,” as angelic harmonies glide in for some reprieve. “In the end you’re a fool like a journalist/ Who turns what… read more »

Contributor

Stacey Anderson's past employment highlights include selling watches to Coldplay, chasing spiders from the dressing rooms at Carnegie Hall, and serving as the S...more »

02.21.12

Damien Jurado, Maraqopa

2012 | Label: Secretly Canadian / SC Distribution

On Damien Jurado’s 10th album, the tried and true folk bard is quick to turn on himself — not a comfortable task for a solo performer who stares into seas of people nightly. “Many nights you would hide from the audience/ When they were not in tune with your progress,” he sings on “Working Titles,” as angelic harmonies glide in for some reprieve. “In the end you’re a fool like a journalist/ Who turns what she’s seeing into business.”

The lyrical self-flagellation is not entirely new to Jurado’s catalogue; he is an extraordinarily sensitive singer-songwriter, one whose reedy voice and deft lo-fi arrangements do little to offset his frequent anguish. He has rested comfortably on cult idolatry for well over a decade by singing with a thoughtful hitch in his throat, largely eschewing the gratuitous noise of his hardcore punk youth. Yet on Maraqopa, his liveliest yet, he indulges in all the lush, psychedelic instrumentation that his modest prior efforts have only suggested; as the acidic opener “Nothing is the News” portends, the plentiful backing vocals and writhing guitar solos are the work of a brazenly confident artist.

One of the album’s tersest tracks, “So On, Nevada,” finds his delicate vocal chords straining to something akin to a yowl, acoustic strings providing thoughtful counterpoint; it echoes the more overt intensity of his 2010 record, St. Bartlett, his initial collaboration with Maraqopa producer Richard Swift. It contrasts so beautifully and unexpectedly the album’s longest track, the swooning Wall of Sound pop ballad “Reel to Reel,” of both prove equally clear glimpses of Jurado’s mercurial mind; as he croons on the latter’s heroine, “The greatest songs I’ll ever hear from a band you started in your mind.” This is the crux of Jurado’s excellent effort, it seems: closing the balance between impulse and craftsmanship, letting both unfurl fully with ease. This, in every way that matters, is progress.

Killer

DAMIEN JURADO - Maraqopa

Moving away from the standard singer-songwriter format, Damien Jurado's sound has slowly got fuller, the palette broader, the ambition bigger. On Maraqopa, his 11th album, the development is clear. â€˜Nothing Is The Newsâ€™ kicks things off with a total wig out. â€˜Life Away From The Gardenâ€™ follows with echoing female harmonies. â€˜Reel To Reelâ€™ swirls. These are new sounds. Theyâ€™re courtesy of a continuing collaboration with singer-turned producer, Richard Swift. There are songs that hark back to his two previous albums, but Swift manages to build on them, keeping the vulnerability of Juradoâ€™s voice and lyrics while adding a new dimension, a new orchestration. It works because itâ€™s done subtly. Even the wig out. In the end, thereâ€™s a certain anti-climax. The final song â€˜Mountains Still Asleepâ€™ finishes the album quietly, even abruptly. But itâ€™s a trick. It just leaves you waiting impatiently for his 12th album. http://half-lifemusic.com/